Sexually Transmitted Bacteria Become 1st Complete 'Virtual Organism'

Below:

Next story in Science

A microbe that causes sexually transmitted infections now has a
much more awe-inspiring claim to fame: It has become the first
organism to be completely simulated by a computer model.

The bug in question, Mycoplasma
genitalium, isa good candidate for
scientists to reconstruct using a computer, because it is truly
tiny, with only 525 genes. (By comparison, humans
have about 20,500 genes.)

This accomplishment opens the door for creating more complicated
virtual organisms, potentially accelerating research and making
it possible for bioengineers to use computers to design
organisms, said lead researcher Markus Covert, a professor of
bioengineering at Stanford University.

Using these computer-model organisms, researchers could test out
ideas and compare their results to what is seen in living things.
In particular, these virtual "organisms" could help them probe
the complexity of many biological phenomena, Covert said.

"The answer is simply cancer is not a one-gene phenomenon, it's
thousands of genes interacting together, and other factors
interacting in complicated ways," Covert told LiveScience. "The
fact is, we won't be able to understand how those things interact
together unless we use a rational, computer-based approach."

To create the model organism, Covert and colleagues combed more
than 900 sources of information about the single-celled
M.genitalium, which can
cause inflammation of the urethra and the cervix, as well as
pelvic inflammatory disease. They built a model of the organism's
genetic structures and machinery for each of 28 cellular
processes, such as the replication
of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, the code that makes up
genes) and cell division. They then put these models together to
simulate a whole cell.